The Abyss Surrounds Us (The Abyss Surrounds Us #1)(47)

I’m still trying to process what’s happening as I watch the man hug Swift, who squeezes him back, careful not to disturb the baby on his chest. When she releases him, he regards me with a curious eye, but I remember Swift’s instructions and keep my questions to myself.

“Prisoner,” she explains as she bends down to greet the anklebiter still clutching the man’s leg.

“Ah, delightful. Hi, prisoner. I’m Saul,” he says sticking out his hand. His voice has the same easy cadence as hers, the same accent dragging at his syllables.

“This,” Swift says, deflating just a bit as she lets the words out, “is my dad.”

Oh.

Oh. It’s all very clear now. The secrecy, the salary—everything. I grasp his offered hand, still reeling, and give it the firmest shake I can manage.

“And who the hell is this?” Swift asks abruptly, pointing at the baby.

“Language, girl,” Saul warns, and she rolls her eyes. “This is Pima. She’s your half-sister.”

“Thought I had enough of those already,” Swift grumbles as two small girls scamper from the shadows and attach themselves to her legs. “Yes, hello!” she says, patting each of them on the head and shooting me a panicked glance. “Shouldn’t you be out of the house? Doing kid shit?”

“Swift,” Saul warns.

“Sorry. Kid activities.”

“Xiao saw your ship on the horizon. We wanted to be here when you got back!” the larger one yelps.

“That’s very kind of you, Teresa,” Swift replies, her voice thick with sarcasm.

“Is it true that you have a monster with you? Xiao said he saw a big beast following your ship, but it wasn’t attacking it,” the other girl says, still locked onto Swift’s leg. “Is it true?”

Saul raises his eyebrows.

“Yep, it’s true. Captain decided it wasn’t fair that all the buckets had beasties fighting for them, so she went and got us one of our own. And a trainer to go with it,” Swift says, hitching her cuffed thumb at me.

The girls’ eyes go wide, and the kid at Saul’s side lets out a whispered “Wow!”

Swift grins, and it’s the most honest smile I’ve ever seen her wear. She holds out the bag of cash to her father, who takes it without hesitation. This exchange is practiced—there’s no embarrassment or wavering in her handing over everything she’s earned to her dad, and I can immediately see why it’s happening, just looking at this place. I can’t even tell how three kids, a man, and a baby manage to get by in a living space so small, but I spot the hammocks strapped to the walls, the crib lashed to one of the beams that supports the roof, and the tiny stove tucked in one corner, and I realize that they get by.

It also does a lot to explain why Swift was so comfortable sharing her cramped bunk with me right from the start. When you come from a place like this, having your own room on a ship is a damn luxury.

“So, you’re a Reckoner trainer, huh?” Saul asks as he dumps the bag out on a table in the corner that seems to be cut out of the same material as the walls of the house. “Where from?”

“SRC,” I say, still lost in processing everything around me.

“Interesting. So the Minnow went after an escorted SRCese ship just to get its trainer?” he asks, more to his daughter than me.

“Not … exactly. Cas was a bonus on top of a good haul,” Swift says, her voice struggling to stay conversational. “Our focus was on killing the beast. Seeing if it could be done.”

“And how’d that go?”

Swift pauses, but when she speaks, it’s the word I know she wants to use. “Magnificently,” she says, and there’s so much sick pride in it that I start to feel a little nauseous. Of course the attack on the Nereid was about killing Durga. But more than that, Swift’s essentially confessed that Durga’s illness was arranged. That suffering, that inhumane end to her life—it was all orchestrated under Santa Elena’s command. A fury alights in me, but there’s nothing I can do about it with the kids watching.

Pima chooses that moment to wake. She stirs in her sling and lets out a vicious, piercing cry. Saul’s attention immediately shifts from the money to the squalling baby, and I feel a twinge of sympathy. I got off easy with Bao. He only took a month or so to mature to the point where he didn’t need my supervision. I can’t imagine years in that situation.

Saul bounces her up and down, lifting her from her sling so that he can cradle her closer and croon soft words against her head until she calms. I wish that worked with Reckoner pups. It’s such a pity they aren’t cuddly.

I don’t realize I’m staring until Swift tugs the cuffs, snapping my attention back to her. “So, uh,” she starts.

“I … ”

“This … this is where I come from.” She shrugs. “It’s not much, but y’know. It’s home.”

“It’s nice.”

“Bullshit.”

“Heard that,” Saul warns. “Teresa, Eva, you two get gone. You’ve gotten a chance to greet your big sister, now give her a chance to rest. Be back for dinner, okay?”

The two girls nod and scamper off, banging the corrugated metal door shut behind them. The sound startles a mound of blankets in one of the hammocks that shifts to reveal the wizened face of an elderly woman. She lifts her head, peering suspiciously from her nest. “Oh,” she croaks, her lips twisting. “You’re here.”